Mixing business with pleasure is destined to end badly, especially when the fraternizing involves a player and the owner of his team.

Just ask current Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons, whose intimate relationship with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban during his two seasons in Dallas became his downfall.

Soon after Parsons signed a three-year, $46 million deal with Cuban’s Mavericks in 2014, employer and employee hit it off and spent most of their time together off the court, enjoying many late nights at clubs from Dallas to Las Vegas to Los Angeles during Parson’s first season.

“We’re boys. We’re friends,” Parsons said, according to an ESPN feature leading up to the Grizzlies-Mavericks showdown Friday night, which the Grizzlies won 80-64. “Yeah, he was the owner of the team, but I didn’t look at him any differently [than other friends]. We did stuff. We enjoyed similar activities off the court. We were friends hanging out.”

Far more suspicious than their hard-partying habits was Cuban’s willingness to include Parsons in business and personnel decisions. Only one year into what would be a short-lived Mavericks career and Parsons was already weighing in on free agency decisions, whom Cuban should send packing and whom he should recruit.

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And Cuban complied. He bid farewell to Monta Ellis, a divisive figure on the team according to Parsons, and committed himself to recruiting Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, a dream teammate in Parson’s book. While NBA rules forbid Cuban from wining and dining Jordan, his right-hand man took care of all the entertaining, a special advantage that helped the Mavericks garner a verbal commitment from the 6-foot-11 Jordan.

An eventual violation of the NBA’s free-agency rules cost Cuban $25,000 in fines and ultimately Jordan himself, who reversed course at the last minute and re-signed with the Clippers.

He wouldn’t be the only one to leave the Mavericks with a bang.

The uncertainty surrounding Parson’s future with the team, as the final year of his contract approached, became unfortunately clearer when he tore his meniscus in a game in March and required a second knee surgery, thereby ending his season. With Cuban in his camp, however, Parsons was confident his spot on the team was safe.

“As much as it hurt to see my season cut short,” Parsons says, “I knew it wasn’t career-ending and I knew financially I was going to be taken care of by Mark.”

How wrong he was.

While Parsons still stands by his optimistic contract talks with Cuban heading into free agency — “I thought we had a mutual understanding that I was going to be there for the whole time and I was going to retire a Mav,” Parsons says — Cuban just shakes his head when asked if a long-term deal had in fact been on the table.

Concerns for Parson’s health and the “jealousy” his teammates felt over his special relationship with Cuban were both possible factors in the team’s decision not to offer him a long-term contract, instead encouraging him to opt in for the final year of his contract at $6 million less than he’d make on a max deal with another team.

“It was just kind of shocking,” Parsons said, recalling how the Mavericks’ lack of confidence in him ultimately led him to sign a four-year, $95.8 million deal with the Grizzlies.

Despite the dramatic fallout, Parsons insists he understands Cuban’s hesitancy to sign a player with his injury history.

“We’re still friends,” Cuban says. And after a recent reunion, where Cuban supposedly told Parsons he wants him back in Dallas one day, it sure sounds like they are.